SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC MARTTI AHTISAARI AT A BANQUET IN HONOUR OF THE STATE VISIT OF PRESIDENT BENJAMIN MKAPA OF TANZANIA IN TURKU ON
17.8.1998

It gives me great joy and honour to welcome you, Mr. President and Mrs. Mkapa together with your delegation, heartily welcome to Finland. My wife and I are also particularly delighted to have the opportunity to spend the weekend with you at our summer residence Kultaranta. Once again, let me express my warmest thanks for the magnificent hospitality that we were able to enjoy when we visited Tanzania just over a year ago.

Relations between Finland and Tanzania have been good and cordial ever since your country achieved independence in 1961. They have been based on a dialogue conducted in a spirit of shared interests and openness between two states that respect and honour each other. Indeed, we can together note with satisfaction that partnership, which in recent years has become a downright buzz word describing the new foundation for relations between industrial and developing countries, has actually existed between us for over 30 years! That has also led to the happy circumstance of relations between us developing in as excellent a climate of trust as two sovereign states could possibly share. A further cause of joy is that our relations have broadened in scope over the years and today encompass also expanding networks in various sectors of the lives and civil societies of our countries.

Relations between Finland and Tanzania can, in fact, be traced back to a time well before your country achieved independence. The 50^th anniversary of cooperation between Finnish missionary organisations and Tanzanian churches is being celebrated in Finland this year. We are all aware of the great contribution that this cooperation has made both to relations between us and to a variety of development projects in Tanzania.

I hope that in conjunction with your visit we shall be able to further expand our relations in various sectors of the life of society. It gives me special satisfaction to know that the talks about cooperation that began last year between the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries and the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers are continuing in conjunction with this visit. The intention is to exchange information about and experience of opportunities for cooperation as well as in relation to how organisations representing industry can participate in the development of society. I wish this new opening, which is based on many common interests, the best of success.

The international operating environment in which we promote interests between our countries is today very different from the one in which our cooperation began. A global interdependence encompassing all countries is rapidly increasing. It contains many threats, such as global environmental problems and depletion of natural resources, the tensions between countries and continents that spring from widespread poverty and inequality, uncontrolled flows of migrants and refugees and growing international terrorism and crime. All of them are threats that we want to combat in cooperation with Tanzania and other countries. The central means are: further development of political relations both bilaterally and in multilateral fora like the UN, economic and trade cooperation to promote stable economic and social development as well as working together in the field of development to help create an environment conducive to all of these positive goals.

The bomb attack in Dar es Salaam just over a week ago was a regrettable demonstration of these growing threats. On my own and the entire Finnish people’s behalf, I express my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and to the injured.

I want, however, to emphasise the positive aspects of interdependence and the opportunities that it offers. Above all, rapidly accelerating globalisation of the world economy is a major challenge and opportunity for all states. I see the most important goal of development cooperation between Finland and Tanzania as being to support your country in its own efforts to create the kind of political, economic and social environment in which it will be possible for you to derive the benefits of the vast resources that are in circulation in the international economy. Development cooperation can not substitute for other flows of money nor be an alternative to them. At its best, however, it can help to create the conditions necessary to ensure that other flows of money, domestic and foreign investment, are able to perform the task that is naturally theirs.

Finland is prepared to continue and increase her cooperation with the aim of promoting the economic reforms that have being initiated by Tanzania. Bringing stability to state finances, developing the tax-administration system and easing the debt problem with the help of the Multilateral Debt Relief Fund are examples of our development foci, the goal of which is to promote an economy that favours investment and growth.

Supporting democratic development and good administration, for example through the local government programme, are another central cooperation area, the aim of which is to improve the basic framework for development. Democracy, respect for human rights and a pluralistic civil society based on them ensure that the preconditions for security, stability and predictable development are met. I would also like specially to emphasise the importance of civil society and of the private sector generally in cooperation between us. The cooperation that takes place through nongovernmental organisations creates exactly the kind of social capital that is needed to solve those conflicts and tensions which are in themselves part of the vital force of democracy and the market economy.

A summit meeting between the European Union and Africa is taking place in the year 2000 and the most important phase of preparations for it will coincide with the Finnish Presidency in the latter half of 1999. Our intention is that the meeting will set concrete goals for growing cooperation in political, economic and development-related questions, and will do so in a spirit of partnership in which all involved accept responsibility for their own development. In line with the same principle, we have been preparing for negotiations to arrive at a new agreement with the ACP countries; in other words, a follow-on to the Lome Convention. These negotiations, too, will reach their climax during the Finnish Presidency.

I have noted with satisfaction the development that has taken place between Tanzania and her neighbours under the umbrella of East African Co-operation as well as more broadly within the framework of the Southern African Development Community. Regional cooperation creates a foundation for successful integration into the global economy. It is also a central means of easing political tension and conflicts. Finland is willing to continue to contribute the resources and expertise at our disposal to supporting various regional cooperation arrangements.

Tanzania has an important position in promoting regional security and in efforts to prevent conflicts. Finland greatly appreciates the important work that President Nyerere has done in the Burundi peace negotiations and in efforts to achieve a permanent solution also more broadly in the crisis in the Great Lakes region. Finland is prepared to continue to support his work.

We in Finland have followed with satisfaction the development of the solution that is now in sight in the Zanzibar conflict. You will have an opportunity during this visit to familiarise yourself with the Åland Islands autonomous region. I hope it will give you knowledge and experience that will prove useful in Tanzania’s efforts to achieve a permanent solution to the Zanzibar issue on the basis, naturally, of your own points of departure.

I wish you, Mr. President, and through you all of Tanzania, success in overcoming the challenges of the future. Finland wants to play a part in that work in the spirit of dialogue and partnership that has always been the hallmark of relations between us.